Dame Caroline Dinenage, Member of Parliament for Gosport, has written to the Home Office in anticipation of more long-distance migrant Channel crossings.

On Sunday 6th September, a small boat carrying “around 140 migrants” was intercepted by Yarmouth and Bembridge RNLI lifeboats in the English Channel. In an unusual development, the small boat originated from Jobourg in Normandy, making this 68-mile journey “one of the longest small boat crossings recorded” and the first small boat crossing to land in Hampshire. The boat was met by around 500 far-right protesters as it docked in Portsmouth.

The letter seeks answers to questions which were not answered by Government Ministers in response to Caroline’s questions in the House of Commons on Monday 7^th September. At a statement on the disorder, Caroline asked Sarah Jones, a Home Office Minister, whether criminal gangs would launch more small boats towards Hampshire, and highlighted the lack of resource provided to police forces to keep order in the face of protests.

Writing to the Home Secretary, Caroline said: “I am keen to understand the extent to which preparations are being made for bringing any of these migrant boats ashore in the future. I am sure you recognise that Eastney was a disastrous destination and it’s vital to avoid a future repeat of those distressing scenes.

“With that in mind, I would warn against considering any alternative destinations around Portsmouth Harbour but particularly to Gosport, a peninsula town, with very constricted traffic arteries.

“Quite simply my Gosport constituents would not accept attempts by the Hone Office to bring these immigrant boat arrivals to our shores.  The roads on and off the Gosport peninsula are single carriageway, sometimes single lane, mainly residential and often congested. It would be virtually impossible to guarantee that immigrant arrivals would leave this peninsula safely.

“I would strongly suggest that any further immigrant boat arrivals destined for this part of the South Coast are turned around in the English Channel.”

Following protests across the Solent area, Caroline previously spoke in the House of Commons about the impact of the disorder on police resources in Hampshire.

Speaking at the statement, Caroline said: “Yesterday afternoon, MPs across the Solent region were scrambling for reliable information with complete radio silence from the Home Office. As a result, we could not calm fear and tension.

“We still know very little about this extraordinary mega-dinghy turning up on our shores. This is not just west a little bit from Dover; this is halfway down the south coast. Will criminal gangs launch more small boats in the direction of Hampshire? Will the Minister share that intelligence with coastal MPs? Where was the intelligence on this incident?

“Can she also answer claims that the police were not properly resourced? More than 140 officers were dragged away from our communities and from communities as far away as London to police and deal with this incident. Can she please assure us that such incidents will be dealt with better in the future and that she will be doing everything to ensure that it does not happen again?”

Earlier in the day Caroline had taken to Facebook to tell constituents that she would speak to Home Office Ministers about the incident, paying particular concern to whether criminal gangs were being emboldened to open up new routes across the Channel. A meeting between officials and Solent coastal MPs is taking place this week.

Responding to Caroline in the House of Commons, Sarah Jones MP said: “Obviously, this was a moving picture, and it is not always possible for the police dealing with an incident to respond in a way that one might want.

“The hon. Lady asked whether attempts to land further down the coast were an emerging problem. We are aware that, partly because we are making it harder for people to launch boats from “traditional” places, they are starting to launch them further west along the French coast. There is no evidence to suggest that they particularly want to land anywhere that would not enable them to get to Manston, which is where they would normally go, but we will of course totally keep all this under review.

“The force was given the mutual aid that it asked for. There were several forces around, and in the end, the people causing the problem were dispersed. It is not uncommon for forces to offer mutual aid. For instance, when problems arose in Cleveland in recent weeks, 600 officers went in, through mutual aid.”

Other Solent MPs spoke out also, Alan Mak, Amanda Martin, Joe Robertson, and Richard Quigley raising issues about raising issues about the intimidation and disorder inflicted on their local communities, the emergence of this new, more westerly small-boat landing route, and what further reassurance, resourcing and action the Government would provide.